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Coming in the wake of a long period of peace, the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 –1748) engulfed Britain's empire in the most expensive war in its history to that date. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended conflict in 1748, was therefore not simply a diplomatic accord but also an economic blueprint for future prosperity in trade. Here Charles Hanbury Williams captures this interplay of diplomacy and political economy, writing that "trade is a tacit war" and expressing concern over "how far a commercial people, oppress'd with debts & loaded with taxes, ought or ought not to meddle upon the continent."
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This satirical song refers to a visit by three chiefs of the Cherokee Nation to the court of King George III in July 1762. The Cherokee were not the first to make a voyage to the British monarch in London, and as such, their embassy formed part of a longstanding strategy by which Native Americans used transatlantic diplomacy to achieve their aims. Yet this satire also reveals the ways in which British notions of indigenous difference permeated such visits, undermining the seriousness of indigenous diplomacy by recasting the Cherokee diplomats as threats to English masculinity and female sexual propriety. Catalog Record
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Gillray's print imagines Lord George Maccartney visiting the Chinese emperor on behalf of King George III. The sinister-looking emperor with claw-like hands finds his counterpart in the slides of the gifted magic lantern, which depict devils chasing after men. Perhaps a key to the scene as a whole, the magic lantern projected images –including fantastic and stereotypic imaginings of the empire's "others." Catalog Record
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Cruikshank's print imagines the regent (seated center) and his entourage as a (stereotyped) "Chinese" court. Cozied up to the regent is Lady Hertford (a close friend), who makes a "cuckold" sign above her husband Lord Hertford's head. (The latter is the nephew of General Henry Seymour Conway.) Although focused on the "Chinese," the print also nods to the much-caricatured Saartjie Baartman, in the form of the background figure occupying the left pedestal, labeled "Regency Taste." (Baartman was a Koi Koi woman from what is today South Africa, taken to England and France, where she was exhibited and, after her death, brutally dissected and displayed by French scientist Georges Cuvier). Catalog Record
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Though Scots after 1760 achieved an unprecedented degree of integration into the British Empire –as colonial administrators, military leaders, even politicians –their rising influence met with skepticism and resentment from many Britons. This print by George Townshend captures those sentiments. Scottish men and women stand before a screen yearning for commissions across Britain and its empire. Surrounding them are references to their cultural differences from the English –evidenced in their wearing of Highland plaids –and allusions to their contrary interests to those of the British Empire. The screen, for example, reads "Scotch Interest against English Merit." One seeks a noble title so that she "may be Gratefull to the French" –a clear reference to perceptions of Scottish treachery in the French-supported 1745 Highland rebellion. Instructions below invite the viewer to hold the print to the light in order to "see further of the subject," revealing yet more portrayals of Scots using English positions to further their own ambitions. Together these characters frame Scots as treacherous outsiders seeking places in order to pursue ends antithetical to the British Crown –a view underscored by use of the word "Sawney," a vulgar eighteenth-century epithet for Scot. Catalog Record
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The bloody terrors of the French Revolution (1789 –1799) are the ostensible subject of this print. Published, not coincidentally, on the anniversary of the declaration of American independence from Britain, it deploys the mythological fury Alecto, avenger of wrongs, as a furious personification of the seductive powers of (French) Revolution. Gillray critiques British sympathizers, like Whig politician Charles James Fox (second from right). Both Alecto and Fox endeavor to "recruit" the British people –personified as "John-Bull" (far left), who is working for "Varmer- [Farmer] George" (King George III) –to join the new republic. Three months earlier, Fox had spoken out against the slave trade in Parliament. Thus the print –which dubs brown-skinned Alecto the "Black Sarjeant [sic]," –is also about the fate of transatlantic slavery. French (and British) desires to overthrow metaphorical "slavery" rub uncomfortably close to enslaved persons' demands for –and seizure of –their own liberty. The French Revolution overlapped with the Haitian Revolution (1791 –1804), during which enslaved and free black people overthrew the French in Saint-Domingue to create the first free black state in the western hemisphere. Catalog Record
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A Lady's Dressing Room in Calcutta (1813) advertises Holland's "humorous Collection of East & West India Caricatures," further gesturing toward the blurring of "East" and "West" in British print culture of the period. Not unlike the white creole woman in West India Luxury!!, here, a woman of indeterminate racial/ethnic background is waited upon by one of six very dark-skinned women in her "dressing room." The print's title likely recalls Jonathan Swift's satirical poem "The Lady's Dressing Room" (pub. 1732), in which a woman's lover has a disturbing "behind-the-scenes" experience of her private chamber. The textual reference suggests pollution –here, perhaps, as a metaphor for racial mixing. Catalog Record
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West India Luxury!! depicts the doings of a white male colonist in the British Caribbean and, presumably, his white "creole" (island-born) wife, mocking in particular the laziness that the institution of slavery was thought to have produced among colonists there. The print alludes to the domestic relationships into which white male colonists forced enslaved women and into which Englishmen in India coerced colonized women. Labeling the white male planter "A West India Nabob," the artist links British imperial rule in the West and East Indies –a "nabob" being an Englishman who acquired wealth working for the East India Company –and insinuates that some of this "Nabob's" wealth is in enslaved women. Catalog Record
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This print draws on the historical enslavement of "white" people from the Caucasus region (between the Black and Caspian seas), which preceded the transatlantic slave trade by some four centuries and coexisted with it through the sixteenth century. Circassians are an ethnic group from along the northeastern shore of the Black Sea; some European natural historians, including Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752 –1840), posited "Caucasian" women as the most beautiful among the "races." The Russian Empire engaged in protracted wars for regional control of the Caucasus between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. This print musters the history of the Eastern European slave trade in metaphorical reference to a contest between imperial (masculine) powers –namely, Britain and Russia. The former are "Disappointed Dandies" who fail to "get a peep at" –or conquer –"the Fair Circassian." The prince regent (the future King George IV, second from right) attempts to bribe one of the black male eunuchs guarding the woman and promises to make the eunuchs "Keepers of [his] Harem." The dandy to the far left is Francis Charles Seymour-Conway (1777 –1842) –known then as Lord Yarmouth –who was the grand-nephew of General Henry Seymour Conway, whose portrait and papers are featured in this exhibition. When the Allied Sovereigns visited England in 1814, Yarmouth was assigned to accompany Russian emperor Alexander (1777 –1825; in power, 1801 –1825), after which the emperor inducted Yarmouth into the Russian chivalric Order of Saint Anne. The satirical print depicts Yarmouth's diplomatic intimacy with Russia as a thwarted erotic desire for one of Russia's territorial interests, personified as a "fair" woman (but also perhaps depicted as Yarmouth's own mother, Isabella Anne Ingram Shepherd, 2nd Marchioness of Hertford [1760 –1834], a close friend of the regent). Catalog Record
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This print depicts a mock-auction of "English Beauties" at an East Indian port. English women's desire for foreign luxuries, combined with their physical presence in India (however minimal compared to the number of English men working for the East India Company), was seen to threaten the "purity" of their race. The most prominently featured English woman in the print is the object of "Western" and "Eastern" men simultaneously. The Indian consumer depresses the top of her globular, exposed breast with his middle finger. Given Britain's imperial aspirations, one might read this gesture as signifying a desire to mark the "globe"; that his finger creates a dark shadow on an otherwise snow-white breast suggests racial competition and, perhaps, contamination. The reality of enslaved African women and men being sold in markets prompts the "humorous" metaphor for Gillray's print, further implied by the presence of a caricatured African boy attending the Englishman. Catalog Record
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This print, part of a series of "views" of the British colony, crafts an idyllic image of one of the four sugar plantations that William Beckford, a white man born in Jamaica, inherited from his father in 1744. While, on Beckford's plantations, nearly one thousand enslaved persons experienced brutal working conditions, the artist imagines an orderly, proto-industrial, and picturesque colonial stronghold carved out of an otherwise "unruly" and "uncultivated" landscape. Enslaved laborers are a minuscule presence within the scene, and the two most prominently figured individuals are depicted at rest, conversing casually, instead of engaged in grueling labor or undergoing the forms of torture upon which plantation slavery relied. Catalog Record
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When compared with The Horrid Torture of Impalment [sic] as a Punishment on Runaway Slaves, the two prints reflect, on the one hand, the longstanding metaphorical use of "slavery" to describe various perceived indignities suffered by white Europeans and, on the other, the institution's brutal reality for enslaved Africans and their descendants. In Slavery, the "slaves" are the British merchants who, not feeling themselves to be sufficiently protected by the Crown, suffer under Spain's powerful marine presence. The Horrid Torture of Impalment [sic] as a Punishment on Runaway Slaves, by contrast, endeavors to depict plantation slavery's brutal "disciplinary" regimes; highly graphic in content and created amid the heights of abolitionism, it spectacularizes –even fetishizes –black suffering to incite anti-slavery sentiments among whites. Catalog Record
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When compared with "Slavery," the two prints, produced seventy years apart, reflect, on the one hand, the longstanding metaphorical use of "slavery" to describe various perceived indignities suffered by white Europeans and, on the other, the institution's brutal reality for enslaved Africans and their descendants. In Slavery, the "slaves" are the British merchants who, not feeling themselves to be sufficiently protected by the Crown, suffer under Spain's powerful marine presence. The Horrid Torture of Impalment [sic] as a Punishment on Runaway Slaves, by contrast, endeavors to depict plantation slavery's brutal "disciplinary" regimes; highly graphic in content and created amid the heights of abolitionism, it spectacularizes –even fetishizes –black suffering to incite anti-slavery sentiments among whites. Catalog Record
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This print, which depicts an Englishman and his family being attacked by indigenous people on the Ohio River, served as a foldout frontispiece to the fictionalized captivity narrative Struggles of Capt. Thomas Keith in America, including the manner in which he, his wife and child were decoyed by the Indians (London: T. Tegg, 1808). Not listed as subjects of the print, but no less under attack, are two black men. The narrative reveals that, despite his distaste for plantation slavery's violence, the captain owns both men, Cuffey and Jack. The former is killed and, in a romantic twist, the latter eventually escapes and brings about the English family's rescue. Catalog Record
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The Dance of the Calumet of the Sun is ethnographic in nature, purporting to depict an important ritual. The performer on the left holds the calumet or "peace pipe," decorated with feathers. Practiced by many indigenous nations, calumet ceremonies –which might accompany both war and peace alliances –became more common with increased European colonial presence in North America. Catalog Record
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This print depicts a Chinese visitor to Lisbon who, "after many hardships & ill treatments from the Portuguese," came to Britain in 1755, "where he met with different usage." There he paid visits to King George II and many members of the nobility before embarking back to "his Native Country" of Canton aboard an East India Company ship. Though this image conveys a dignified portrait of the Chinese visitor to London, the comparison it draws between British and Portuguese "usage" suggests another purpose: to frame Britain's empire as unparalleled in its bestowal of liberty and "benevolence" to native visitors. Catalog Record
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Mohawk Sachem Hendrick Theyanooguin was critical to Britain's alliance with the Six Nations Iroquois and the North American balance of power on which it so delicately rested. He defended this alliance at the 1754 Albany Congress and even lost his life alongside the British at the Battle of Lake George one year later. This print, commissioned by Parliament the year he died, portrays Hendrick as a man poised between two worlds: a distinguished Christian Mohawk "King," positioned at forest's edge but donning British clothing and a metal axe. Also of significance is this print's opaque history and its ties to transnational Native American diplomacy; because Hendrick shared the name of another Mohawk sachem thirty years his senior –Hendrick Tejonihokarawa, one of the "Four Indian Kings" who travelled to London in 1710 to hold court with Queen Anne –historians unwittingly conflated the two until very recently. Catalog Record
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Mocking the ability of colonized peoples in British India to assimilate to "English" ways –and perhaps mocking the British imperial project itself –this pair of prints depicts "before" and "after" scenes featuring native persons. The Indian Lady Amusing herself at her Leisure Hours is shown wearing a flowing garment with one breast bare, spinning fibers. Her counterpart, A Modernized Indian Lady Amusing herself at her Leisure Hours, sits in fancy and sweltering "English" dress, sweating over the British music that she plays on a piano imported from London. Catalog Record
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Mocking the ability of colonized peoples in British India to assimilate to "English" ways –and perhaps mocking the British imperial project itself –this pair of prints depicts "before" and "after" scenes featuring native persons. The Indian Merchant in his Muslin Dress & Turban sits calmly, coolly at his desk, writing in a ledger. His counterpart, the Native Merchant in the English Costume, sweats over disorderly stacks of paper and books, surrounded by imports unfit for the warm climate, such as "Fleecy Hosiery" and "Blankets." Catalog Record
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Despite the increased involvement of the EIC in South Asia after 1765, the Company's privileges ran out in 1780. Preoccupied with the American Revolutionary crisis, Parliament did not determine a course of action until 1784. Charles James Fox's 1783 India Bill, undertaken with influence by Edmund Burke, proposed that India be governed by a board of seven independent commissioners in London. William Pitt the younger's 1784 India Act, by contrast, proposed a dual governance system that left the Directors in charge of Indian commerce but called for a new Board of Council to superintend Indian political affairs. "Billy's Triumph" refers to the success of Pitt's India Act at the expense of Fox's India Bill. In this political satire, the artist reimagines Fox, Pitt, and Prime Minister North using South Asian imagery. Charles Fox, dressed as an Oriental prince, lies on the ground after falling off the elephant with Lord North's face. The elephant, with William Pitt atop, faces the entrance to the East India House. Pitt holds out a "new India bill" and keeps other bills – including a Mutiny Act and Stamp Act – under his arm and in his pocket. Catalog Record
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When George Grenville expressed his support for the Stamp Act in 1765, he simultaneously pushed Robert Clive of the East India Company (EIC) toward acquiring territorial sovereignty over Bengal. This print affords a compelling glimpse into the nature of British power in India in the decade that followed. Similarly, in The India Directors in the Suds, East Indian merchants appear before company directors so suddenly that one stands up quickly in fright, overturns his chair, and drops a letter marked "Apology" –a reference to a rancorous imperial debate over whether the EIC had failed to treat indigenous Indians fairly. It inverts the power dynamics traditionally associated with British imperial rule. Instead of Europeans dictating the terms of governance, the Indian leader in the print holds power over company officials and British politicians. The company's mistreatment of native Indians became a major subject of political scrutiny in Parliament in the 1770s, leading many to question whether the empire had failed in its stated purpose of extending liberty to native communities across the globe. Catalog Record
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When George Grenville expressed his support for the Stamp Act in 1765, he simultaneously pushed Robert Clive of the East India Company (EIC) toward acquiring territorial sovereignty over Bengal. This print affords a compelling glimpse into the nature of British power in India in the decade that followed. The Peace Makers of India features Hyder Ali, Nawab of Mysore, holding Britain's politicians by the nose while European figures in the background fan flames of conflict on the ground. It inverts the power dynamics traditionally associated with British imperial rule. Instead of Europeans dictating the terms of governance, the Indian leader here holds power over company officials and British politicians. The company's mistreatment of native Indians became a major subject of political scrutiny in Parliament in the 1770s, leading many to question whether the empire had failed in its stated purpose of extending liberty to native communities across the globe. Catalog Record
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The artist presents female personifications of Africa, America, Asia, and Europe contemplating the effects of the British North American colonies' rebellion against the metropole's "Tea Tax" and "Stamp Act." Father Time uses a magic lantern (a projection device) to forecast an explosive outcome. "Europe" and "Asia," shown in intimate contact, scarcely acknowledge the scene; instead, they confer with one another, as though discussing an alliance. "Africa" expresses concern, her body casting a large shadow on the projection, perhaps indicative of the relationship of transatlantic slavery to empire. "America," figured as an indigenous woman with a bow resting at her side, reaches out from the shadows as though consigned to the periphery, even as her doppelganger in the projected scene (standing in for white British "America") reaches for the cap of "liberty." The presence of a turbaned man among the "American" forces on the right perhaps suggests that "Europe's" (or Britain's) supposed influence in Asia might be undermined by the American colonists' actions. Catalog Record
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The Rockingham Ministry repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766, responding to fervent protests by Patriot Whigs in Britain and across its empire. This artist's depiction of repeal is rich with symbolism. In the background, ships come into port bearing the names of those ministers who ushered in repeal, including that of Henry Seymour Conway. In the foreground, those ministers responsible for the Stamp Act –men like George Grenville, the Duke of Bedford, and Lord Bute in his Scottish plaid –mourn as this legislation is buried in a "family vault" donning kulls that correspond with the 1715 and 1745 Scottish Highland Rebellions. The numbers on their flags correspond with the numbers of votes against repeal in the Lords and Commons. Catalog Record
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This print depicts the contest between Britain and its rebellious North American colonies as a daughter fighting her "mother" –the "Mother Country" being a common designation for Britain. The "daughter's" appearance as an indigenous woman with bared breasts, flowing locks, and tattoos adds to her supposed "unruliness" when contrasted with her "mother's" fashionable English dress and mountain of styled hair (though, interestingly, both women sport feathers). The mother, advocating "Obedience," declares her daughter, who desires "Liberty," to be a "Rebellious Slut." The more mature but truncated tree on Britain's side, compared to the younger but growing tree on the colonies' side, suggests the dying off of one power and the upstart blossoming of another. Erased from this image are the actual indigenous persons whom both parties at turns sought to make self-serving alliances with and to displace and murder. Catalog Record